India - Retro Food For Modern Times

29
Oct
2020

Lord Mayor’s Mango Chutney

Over the next week or so election fever will hit many of us like a less lethal but possibly more pervasive version of the ‘rona. After all, the fate of many will ride on the outcome of this highly important and contentious race. I am, of course talking about our local Moonee Valley council elections! And yes, of course, there is another far more important election happening shortly. But today, we are keeping it local and going exotic with a recipe for the Lord Mayor’s Mango Chutney!

The recipe comes from the June 1991 issue of Vogue Entertaining Australia. It features in an article called “Banquet by The Billabong” which is all about posh dining outside

What that glamourous description doesn’t tell you is that the calls of the river life probably include crocodiles that will kill you quicker than you can blink and mosquitos carrying dengue fever, Ross River virus and Murray Valley Encephalitis . Then there’s the venomous snakes and the poisonous spiders and the drop bears. And the occasional serial killer to boot. That rustle of linen could well be the noose around your neck and the chink of silver the knife about to slit your throat!.

Come on, it’s Hallowe’en! if we’re not going to get dark at this time of year when are we????

Something a lot less Wolf Creeky is this recipe for Mango Chutney which comes from Alex Fong Lim who was Lord Mayor of Darwin from 1984-1990. This is a fabulous recipe too. I don’t like a lot of commercial mango chutneys because I find them too sweet. This however, has the perfect blend of sweet and spice and heat. And it is so pretty as well! The chunks of mango become almost translucent as they cook so they look like gorgeous bright jewels. This is the perfect accompaniment to a curry – the picture directly below had it paired beautifully with Nick Sharma’s Chicken Biryani Tagine and the one below that has it matched up with a Sri Lankan chicken curry badun.

Lord Mayor’s Chutney – The Recipe

You can, of course, adjust the amount of chilli to suit your taste. I only used 500g of mango and 2 birdseye chillies in my chutney. I also used fresh grated ginger and sultanas because I can’t abide raisins. Most importantly for those of you who cannot get ripe or under-ripe mangoes, or it is not mango season even if you can, I used a packet of chopped frozen mango for my chutney and I was very happy with the results!

I’m not entirely sure about what the other duties of a Lord Mayor are. I guess they are boss of the council? But if the quality of this recipe is anything to go by, then maybe part of their job description needs to be that they all have to share a recipe with their constituents!

I’d vote for that!

Have a great week!

06
Feb
2020

Prawn and Potato Curry

categories: 1970's food, Good Housekeeping World Cookery, India, Prawns, World Cooking

Greetings people of the internet. This week we are returning to our sojourn around the world via Good Housekeepings World Cookery. Last time we visited this book we were in Pakistan for a subcontinental take on Scotch Eggs. Today we are moving south and east into India for a super easy, super delicious Prawn and Potato Curry.

I threw some baby corn in as well because this is my year of not wasting food and we happened to have some in the fridge that was not going to last the week. To be honest, the baby corn should never have been bought. It was on sale and the fussiest eater in the world said he wanted it.

“For what?” I asked.

“I’ll think of something”

Something was not thought of. Hence the fact that the baby corn went into the curry.

There seems to be something in the air this year around reducing waste/saving money. I set a goal for 2020 to be my year of reducing kitchen waste. Halfway across the world, the lovely Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers is also cutting down on waste this year. My boss is radically cutting down on her kitchen waste this year by living off pantry supplies every fourth week and donating the money she would have spent on food to charity. I LOVE this idea!!!! Such a bold and generous move!

But back to the curry. This curry is very easy to make and for a curry, few ingredients. It is also very tasty! Here’s the recipe, direct from the pages of Good Housekeeping’s World Cookery. But please feel free to add in any veggies you may have that would otherwise go to waste!

Have a great week! And please tell me any tips you have for reducing kitchen waste!

24
Apr
2017

Bombay Potato Snacks

categories: India, Potato, Snacks, Vegetarian

Let’s talk about what makes the best snacks the best. They are crunchy, salty, crispy, fried, spicy, sweet, creamy, fresh or sour right? So, what if you could combine all of those tastes and textures into the one dish? Wouldn’t that make it THE. BEST. SNACK.EVER? Yes. It would. And the only thing that stops me from claiming this for these Bombay Potato Snacks is that there is a little bit of work involved in making them which is kind of contrary to the idea of the snack….however, persevere with me. They’re worth the effort! And also very pretty!

I probably should have cropped this photo a lot more. However, I really liked the shadows of the plants on my kitchen windowsill. And you have to take your little pleasures where you find them right? And for you pernickety people, there’s a cropped version down below.

So, Bombay Potato Snacks. First time I made this, I totally forgot to strew the Bombay mix (or Sev as it is called in Sri Lanka over the top). Doh! It was actually still pretty tasty but you know…really just a potato snack which is totally not enough for all of you delightful and snack hungry RFFMT readers. Cos you all deserve the bomb! Eh?

Okay. Even by my standard of bad puns, that last one was just a little bit too shit. So, let’s quickly forget it ever happened and talk potatoes. In this case oven roasted with a bit o’ salt and cayenne pepper but you could totally pan or deep fry them should you so desire. Once baked or fried, arrange them on a place. I chose to place mine in a circle. Then, add a dollop of Greek Yoghurt, and top that with a dollop of Indian Chutney. I chose to use a home-made Mango Salsa Chutney from Kylee Newton’s wonderful book The Modern Preserver but you could use your favourite bought chutney.

We’re then going to sprinkle a little bit of tomato salsa over the top of all of this – tomato, red onion, chilli, coriander, mint, lemon juice to add some freshness and zing and pow!

And then, if this is not already tasty enough, we’re going to top this off by just throwing a handful of Bombay Mix all over the top! That is five layers of awesome on your plate. This is not just a Yeah! dish. This is a HELL YEAH! dish!

And totes vegetarian for those who care about those things. You could also very easily make it vegan by swapping out the dairy yogurt for a soy or coconut yogurt. Actually, vegans please make this. And give it to your non-vegan friends and defy them to say that this vegan dish is not as tasty AF.

Serve this on a platter and let your guests dig in. Or…eat it all by yourself. I won’t judge you. I promise. I may have even done that myself.

We’re doing Indian in Tasty Reads in April and May…and also there was an awesome Indian inspired Shepherd’s pie made on My Kitchen Rules this week, which I am totally going to adapt to my own tastes so stay tuned for more Indian inspired dishes in future.

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Bombay Potato Snacks

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

5 large potatoes cut into 1cm slices
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and cayenne pepper to taste
100 ml Indian Chutney of your choice – I used a home made mango chutney
125ml Greek yoghurt

Salsa:

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp mint leaves, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1 red chilli, chopped, seeds removed (less or more depending on your love of heat)

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Instructions

Preheat oven to 200C.
Place the potato slices, the salt, cayenne pepper and oil in a large plastic bag and toss to coat.
Place the slices in a single layer on a baking tray and roast for 30 minutes, flipping them over half way through.
Remove from tray to a wire rack and allow to cool.

For The Salsa:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

To Serve

Spread the potato slices around the platter.
Add a dollop of Yoghurt into the middle, top this with a dollop of chutney.
Sprinkle the salsa over the top.
Top with the Bombay mix.
Eat. Enoy!

Next up though, we’re slipping and sliding, stepping and stomping into the letter S from The A-Z of Cooking. And for once, the heading is not completely random. Leave a comment if you’d like to have a guess at what it might be!

It’s your week…make it fab!

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27
May
2014

Lets Get Chatty…Chatti Pathiri that is (Daring Kitchen)

categories: Chicken & Poultry, Chickpeas, Coriander, Curry, Daring Kitchen, India, Sambol

Here is something you don’t know about me.

You know how some people step up and excel under pressure? I’m not one of them. I warp. I buckle. I crumple and fold. When the going gets tough you can usually find me sobbing in a corner. And one of the things that really fazes me is cooking for other people – not so much for dinners but a bake sale? Guaranteed disaster. Last time? Yes, that was me running into the 7-11 well after midnight, (after the first four attempts at cupcakes had failed) wild eyed, smeared with flour and frosting and slightly twitchy. “Where’s your cake mix? I need a box of cake mix. And I need it now!!!!” I was like a demented Betty Crocker junkie desperate for my fix…..

Chatting Pathiri

Sigh.

The April Daring Cooks Challenge was brought to us by Joanne from What’s On The List. She taught us all about Pathiri and challenged us to create our own version of this inspirational Indian dish!

Challenge was right, I felt the first stirrings of panic rising even as I read the recipe….

So, let’s take a step back before I start hyperventilating (again) and look at this dish called Chatti Pathiri. For those of you, who, like me had never heard of Chatti Pathiri, the best way to explain is that it’s kinda, sorta like an Indian Lasagne where crepes step in for the pasta sheet and, in my case a spicy chicken and chickpea curry acts as the filling.

Yeah, you heard it….yummy, yummy crepes and delicious chicken and chickpea curry. And after you layer these two bits of deliciosuness, you slather them in coconut milk and bake it all together. And mark my words….It’s all good.

So why the fear? Why the cold hand of dread on my spine I hear you ask? Not because of the recipe, that was awesome!!! But because I kind of know Joanne. She reads this. She comments. She’s a lovely, friendly delightful person. And she has entrusted me (and yes, ok thousands of other people on the Daring Kitchen) with a recipe that is obviously very special to her.

And what if I took her delicious recipe and totally screwed it up?

Arrrgggghhhhhh!!!

The pressure….

(I know. Such a Drama Queen. Feel free to roll your eyes. I would be.)

Luckily for me, Joanne’s recipe proved to be idiot proof!!! And super delicious!!!! You can find it here.

I added a little bit more chilli and a can of chickpeas into the chicken mix but apart from that I used Joanne’s recipe as is.

I served my version of Chatti Pathiri with a coconut and coriander sambol and some cherry tomatoes drizzled with a little bit of pomegranate molasses.

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Coriander and Coconut Sambol

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A spicy and refreshing side dish, perfect for eating with your Chatti Pathiri or any other indian dish

Prep Time: 15
Total Time: 15

Ingredients

Scale

3 tbsp coriander leaves
75g coconut (freshly grated is best, I used dessicated)
3 green chillies, deseeded
1 clove of garlic
2.5 cm piece of ginger
2 tsp mint leaves
1 tsp sugar
Salt and freshly squeezed lime juice to taste

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Instructions

Place all ingredients, except lime and salt in a food processor and process until finely chopped.
Add salt and lime juice to taste.
Serve as an accompaniment to curries

Nutrition

Serving Size: 4

The sambol will last in the fridge for about a week if you seal it up. Which is perfect because the Chatti Pathiri is also pretty good reheated on the second day!!!

Joanne, if you’re reading this, thank you very much for the recipe. I loved making it and I loved eating it even more. I hope I have done your recipe and you proud!!!

If this has piqued your interest in Pathiri and /or you would like to see how other Daring Kitchen members interpreted the challenge, you can see some of the completed dishes on Joanne’s blog here.

Or just head over and have a read, you won’t be disappointed!

And speaking of reading, I joined the Goodreads Food and Fiction book. And here’s another thing you may not know about me – my first venture into blogging was trying to match food to the books I was reading. It’s an idea I return to every now and again and I may start adding in one or two of those in the not too distant. In the meantime, if, like me you love food and you love fiction…the Goodreads group may be something for you! You can find a link over on the right.

Have a great week!!!!

And if you want to get chatty, leave a comment!!!!

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21
Oct
2013

Daring Kitchen Challenge – Indian Dosas

categories: Chickpeas, Daring Kitchen, Gluten Free, India, Vegan

One of the reasons I began this blog was to challenge myself to make new and different things – and so not only improve my skills but also my repertoire of dishes. Whilst this has been somewhat successful, the format I’ve chosen generally allows me to pick items that:

a) I am confident I can cook well,

b) Will look good in photos, and

c) I want to eat (mostly…I still shudder at the thought of that awful asparagus mousse)

So, what happens if you want to challenge yourself but take these safety nets away? Well, in my instance, you join the Daring Kitchen. Generally, each month members of this website are challenged to cook and blog about a recipe chosen by one of the members.

The only thing in my first month, which was October, in a “celebration” of past Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we’d like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

And it was a real dilemma. For most people the choice may have been Cooks or Bakers, sweet or savoury. Not me, I’m way too shallow for that. My big quandary was:

Do I cook something I’m pretty sure I can pull off? Something that will look good in the pictures, and by default make me look awesome?

Or, do I stick to the spirit of the challenge and choose something that is going to test my skills and maybe fall flat on my face but learn something in the process?

The choice was therefore narrowed down to Gyozas or Croissants. I’ve made dumplings before, home much harder can gyoza be right? Croissants? Une toute autre histoire!!!

I was heading right down Gyzoa alley (shallow remember?) when I mentioned the challenge to a friend at work and we started looking through the past challenges. She chose the recipe for the Indian Dosas from September 2009. These are both gluten-free and vegan which is great because honestly, my range in both of those areas is limited. So, thanks Nadya, good choice!

First step was to make the pancakes:

These were not the super thin crispy dosas I have eaten in restaurants, mine turned out more the texture of crepes but they were still pretty tasty. And the difference in texture was probably more me that an inherent flaw in the recipe!

Then the chickpea filling…look at the amazing colours of the ingredients.. they are like a little rainbow of health and deliciousness!!!

This was also really tasty! So, so good…

Finally, there was a coconut curry sauce and some condiments to go with it.

Dosas with Coconut Sauce and Condiments 2 — Dosas with Coconut Sauce and Condiments

This was a great first challenge for me as this was probably something I would never had made otherwise. If you want the recipe…and you know you do….click below:

Daring Kitchen Indian Dosas (2023 update – link no longer works. Here is another recipe for Dosa)

I really liked the filling, and if I was too lazy to make the actual dosas or the sauce again (which I probably am), the filling would be super in some warm pita bread with some of the condiments and some yoghurt dip over the top. Hmm..that probably ruins both the vegan and gluten-free aspect of the dish but hey, I’m neither a vegan or a coeliac. It would stay vegetarian..and pretty damn delicious!

OMG, now I want that so much…I have some of the leftover mixture in my freezer…shame I’m already in my pyjamas, or I would be down at the supermarket right now snapping up flatbread and tzatziki like a mad woman…

I ‘m really looking forward to the next month’s challenge which is…it’s a secret…you’ll have to wait about a month to find out!

In the meantime, enjoy this great vintage Indian print…which I think has the Goddess of Food and the Kitchen, Annapurna,in the background…

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Category: India

Lord Mayor’s Chutney – The Recipe

Bombay Potato Snacks

Ingredients

Salsa:

Instructions

For The Salsa:

To Serve

Coriander and Coconut Sambol

Ingredients

Instructions

Nutrition